Bihar cop in 'sex scandal'

Sexploitation, cries woman. Trap, says officer

The daughter of a former Director General of Police has accused an SP-rank officer of sexually exploiting her for the last nine years.

Shabnam Sinha, daughter of the late Prabhat Kumar Sinha, has charged BMP-11 (Jamui) commandant Amitabh Kumar Das, an IPS officer of the 1994 batch, with having reneged on his promise to marry her after sexually exploiting her for nine years.

Das, however, rubbished the allegation and said Shabnamwas being used as "a pawn by the Ranvir Sena". The outfit, he said, was conspiring to malign him because he had dared to recommend POTA against its activists and wanted its chief, Brahmeshwar alias Mukhiaji, shifted to Tihar jail.

Das has been superintendent of police in Deoghar, Lakhisarai, and Buxar districts. The girl, a resident of North Mandiri in Patna, has written to the state Director-General of Police demanding a thorough probe into the matter. She has also petitioned President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

The woman said her family met Das in 1997, when he was posted as Asst SP in Barh, with a marriage proposal. But Das's elder brother was unmarried and he decided to marry only after his brother's marriage.

"Das became a regular visitor to our house. Whenever he was in Patna on official visits, he stayed with us and once even put sindoor on my head after which we started living as man and wife," the woman alleged in the letter to the CM.

"But whenever I talked of marriage, he would offer lame excuses but kept on exploiting me," she said. She claimed she started putting pressure on Das once his brother got married, but he kept putting off their marriage. She says she has photographs and other proof of their relationship.

The woman wrote two letters to Nitish Kumar in January and March this year, following which the chief minister ordered an inquiry by a woman IPS officer.

Whenthe police headquarters sought a clarification from Das, the officer said the allegations were baseless.

"I decided to remain single in my student days. Several marriage proposals came my way. Shabnam's was one of them, but I turned it down. If I had to marry, I would have preferred doing it in front of my friends and relatives. Why would an IPS officer apply sindoor to a girl secretly?" Das asks.

He also questioned the girl's silence for nine years.

"This clearly shows Shabnam is out to defame me. This constitutes a criminal offence and I am seeking legal opinion about it," he says, adding "what prompted the girl to fall in the Sena trap and what is the pressure on her is a matter that calls for investigation."